Cover Story
As economic growth languishes and worries about the specter of deflation mount, much-needed infrastructure development and new sources of project financing could provide a panacea to global growth.

It is essential for companies to work with banking partners they know they can trust. Global Finance’s annual ranking of World’s Safest Banks have been the recognized and trusted standard of financial counterparty safety for more than 20 years.

This year, we updated the name of the awards to reflect the extent to which digitization is transforming our lives in general and banking in particular. By renaming this as the Digital Bank Awards, we are making the competition more inclusive of current technology and more future-focused in anticipation of developments still to come.

Gordon Platt

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2012

A WORD FROM THE EDITOR We received the following letter from the Bank of Korea press office. We are not surprised that some of our features generate controversy. We affirm our right to express an editorial stance based on our ...

NEWSMAKERS: UNITED STATES By Gordon Platt CEO Michael Corbat aims to restore Citi’s prestige—and boost its dividend—by operating with extreme efficiency and producing sustainable profits. Corbat’s selection to head Citi was a surprise to many How he ...

Tertiary Degree Graduates Aged 25-34 (in millions) Tertiary Degrees By Percentage of OECD And G20 Total * OECD estimate based on the same average annual growth rate as that observed between 2000 and 2009 + Germany and ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS By Gordon Platt Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, raised $5 billion in a secondary share sale in London and Moscow in September that had been delayed for more than a year because of unfavorable ...

THE RENMINBI GOES GLOBAL By Gordon Platt Pressure from BRIC countries for a new international reserve currency to replace the dollar is growing. China, the world’s leading trading nation, would like to reap some of the benefits ...

NEWSMAKERS: BERMUDA By Gordon Platt Paula Cox, Bermuda’s premier and minister of finance, shared the stage with former US president Bill Clinton in New York in September at the C3 Summit, a conference designed to promote relations between business ...

FX EXCELS WHILE OTHER ASSETS FALTER By Gordon Platt The FX markets are evolving: Trade and currency internationalization, and the shift toward exchanges, will further this process. Foreign exchange has proven itself as a separate asset class ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS By Gordon Platt A proposed $45 billion merger of European aerospace group EADS with UK defense operator BAE Systems fell apart last month just ahead of a regulatory deadline to close the deal. ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: CORPORATE DEBT By Gordon Platt Corporate debt issuance soared and yields on high-yield as well as investment-grade bonds fell to record lows in September after the European Central Bank (ECB) and the US Federal Reserve ...

UNCERTAINTY REIGNS The foreign exchange market is going through a period of significant change on multiple fronts. New regulations introduced in the wake of the financial crisis will redefine users of foreign exchange services and divide the market into ...

By Gordon Platt, Thomas Clouse, Jonathan Gregson & Antonio Guerrero Regional Winners BEST BANK IN NORTH AMERICA JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase is the top US bank by assets. “For America’s largest companies, we raised or lent over $720 billion ...

By Gordon Platt, Antonio Guerrero and Anita Hawser The Americas ARGENTINA Mercedes Marcó del Pont Grade: D Marcó del Pont has focused much of her efforts over the past year on imposing draconian foreign exchange restrictions. Controls began after last ...

By Gordon Platt, Antonio Guerrero and Anita Hawser ASIA-PACIFIC AUSTRALIA Glenn Stevens Grade: A Stevens has his hands full managing an economy with booming mining and financial sectors and weakness elsewhere. So far, he has managed to keep the overall ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: FOREIGN EXCHANGE By Gordon Platt The euro rebounded to a two-month high in early September, as European policymakers approved a plan to lower borrowing costs for debt-laden members of the euro area through open-ended purchases of bonds ...

FOREIGN AID PACKAGES BOOST EGYPT'S PROSPECTS By Gordon Platt Financial aid packages from the US, China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, among others, will provide much-needed support for the Egyptian economy at a time when the country's FX reserves ...

Commodity Prices And Emerging Markets Rising commodity prices have a much bigger effect on the performance of emerging markets economies than they do in developed markets. “This chart is important because it shows how sensitive emerging markets are to ...

By Gordon Platt, Thomas Clouse, Jonathan Gregson & Antonio Guerrero Global Winners BEST CORPORATE BANK Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in Germany, is a leading global corporate and investment bank and has long been the top foreign exchange ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS By Gordon Platt Despite a decline in global mergers and acquisitions valuations in the first half of 2012, a recent uptick in technology and Asia-Pacific deal values provides some hope for a revival ...

DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH By Gordon Platt, Thomas Clouse, Jonathan Gregson & Antonio Guerrero The World’s Best Banks undoubtedly have flaws, but their fundamentals are improving. Global Finance unveils its annual list of the best banks globally, regionally ...

GUNNING FOR GROWTH By Gordon Platt, Antonio Guerrero and Anita Hawser Global Finance presents its annual report on the performance of the world’s central bank governors. Central banks of most of the major global economies are pulling ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: CORPORATE DEBT By Gordon Platt Global investors are creeping further out on thin ice to capture the higher yields available on bonds issued by companies in emerging markets (EM). Analysts caution that many of the ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: GLOBAL EQUITY / DRS By Gordon Platt Santander, the eurozone’s biggest bank by market value, said it would issue up to $4.3 billion of shares in an initial public offering of up to 24.9% of its ...

MILESTONES: US/GLOBAL By Gordon Platt Two years after Dodd-Frank became law, US regulators identified eight "systemically important" clearing and payment firms that provide critical infrastructure to the country's financial system. Systemically important financial utilities named None of the ...

By Gordon Platt FINANCIAL ADVISER: HSBC When Abu Dhabi needed a financial adviser for its latest seawater desalination and power project, Mirfa IWPP, it selected HSBC on their longstanding relationship and the bank’s reputation, without opening the contract to competitive ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: CORPORATE DEBT By Gordon Platt Community Health Systems, one of the largest hospital companies in the US, refinanced $2.8 billion of its high-yield debt in July and August, taking advantage of low interest rates and ...

GULF BONDS PROVIDE SHELTER FOR INVESTORS FROM CRISIS By Gordon Platt The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are enjoying enormous demand for their debt from global investors. Sukuk, or Islamic bonds, are particularly popular, in part because ...

European Banking Crisis: Impact On Emerging Markets Economies Emerging markets economies’ outstanding debt held by EU banks as a % of their GDP. You will need javascript to view this feature. “EM countries that rely heavily on European banks to ...

By Gordon Platt NORTH AMERICA FINANCIAL ADVISER: Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group MUFG led the $585 million nonrecourse financing of the Wind Energy Transmission Texas project, and structured a $387 million construction loan for the Lone Star Transmission project, a 329-mile transmission ...

CHANGING OF THE GUARD IN PROJECT FINANCE By Gordon Platt As public purse strings tighten, pension funds are the most promising source of long-term funding for infrastructure projects, according to an OECD report supported by Oliver Wyman. ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS By Gordon Platt Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, returned from his second official trip to China in February and announced that Beijing would lend two giant pandas, Er Shun and Ji Li, ...

TURBULENT TIMES By Gordon Platt Ibrahim Dabdoub has been CEO of National Bank of Kuwait since 1983. Global Finance: What are the key risks over the next 5, 10 and 25 years? Ibrahim Dabdoub: As a banker, I ...

CURRENCY CRISES AND CURRENCY WARS By Gordon Platt FX has withstood many crises, including speculative attacks on the British pound, the Mexican peso crisis, the Thai baht crisis and, more recently, a euro under strain and a potential threat ...

DRIVE FOR DEMOCRACY By Gordon Platt Adel El-Labban, group CEO and managing director of Ahli United Bank, Bahrain, has had a major influence on Middle Eastern banking. Global Finance: The past 25 years in the Middle East have ...

TOOLS FOR MANAGING RISK, OR WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION? By Gordon Platt As companies looked to hedge their risks, a new asset class, derivatives, was born in the 1980s. But over the years a number of substantial losses ...

STORMY WEATHER By Gordon Platt When volume 1, number 1 of Global Finance arrived at the airport in London on October 15, 1987, it could not immediately be offloaded. The precious cargo was needed as ballast in the airplane ...

TRADING SIZE FOR VALUE By Gordon Platt Some of the biggest mergers in recent history—AOL and Time Warner, Vodafone and Mannesmann—show that such marriages aren't always made in heaven. Dealmakers are now staring down a much smaller deal ...

SEEKING MORE-INCLUSIVE GROWTH By Gordon Platt After strong economic growth in 2011, the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council are spreading the wealth by putting a priority on non-oil job creation and social welfare. Photo Credit ...

NEW HORIZONS By Gordon Platt With every new regulation that hits global trust and custody banks, a new service is born for subcustodians. Keeping up is expensive and challenging, but nonetheless it is a good time to be ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: FOREIGN EXCHANGE By Gordon Platt The European debt crisis remains the key focus of foreign exchange market participants, as the slowdown in the global economy increases pressure on central banks and government officials to take ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS By Gordon Platt Japanese trading company Marubeni placed a large bet that China's demand for imported corn will continue to grow. Marubeni will buy US grain merchant Gavilon for $5.6 billion, including $2 ...

THE POWER OF ONE By Gordon Platt Thirty-one years have passed since the six Arab oil-producing countries of the Gulf formed an economic and strategic alliance, following the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war. Known as the Gulf ...

STRONG IPO FOR MALAYSIA'S FELDA By Gordon Platt Malaysian palm-oil producer Felda Global Ventures priced its $3.1 billion initial public offering near the top of its indicative range on June 13, amid strong demand from investors, who are ...